Redneck Kaiju - Wil Radcliffe

   2025; 185 pages.  Full Title: Redneck Kaiju: The Scavengers of Deep Hollow.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Dark Fantasy, Horror.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    It came out of the mist like a myth; a giant man-shaped goat.  Thorns twisted like serpents.  Muscles like tree trunks.  Cloven hoofs that cracked stone.  And eyes . . . God, those eyes . . . yellow like wildfire.  (pg. 7).

 

    And it kicked the stuffing out of a 12-man squadron of US Marines.  Patrick “Panther” McMorn was one of the lucky survivors, and still has nightmares about that encounter.

 

    But that was in the past, in Afghanistan, and who knows what kinds of vile mutated beasts all the wars with chemical weapons over there may have been spawned.  Panther McMorn is a civilian now, back in his hometown of Deep Hollow, Indiana.  The only monsters here are in fairy tales.

 

    Yeah right.  In your dreams, Panther, in your dreams.

 

What’s To Like...

    The action in Redneck Kaiju starts right away; the monster-meeting excerpt given above occurs on the third page of the text.  There are two timelines, one in Afghanistan; the other in Deep Hollow.  The text switches between the two, but it is not confusing at all.

 

    I was unfamiliar with the term “Kaiju”, but it’s not a made-up word.  Google it; you’ll be glad you did.  The character development is excellent; I especially liked how Barry’s persona evolves as the story progresses.  Kira and Panther are also well-crafted.  Heck, even the dog’s character development is deftly done.

 

    Thrills and spills and kaiju critters abound.  It’s easy to determine who the bad guys are, but the real crux of the storyline is figuring out a way to stop them, and then repair their evil doings.  There are a wide variety of kaiju creatures to meet and discreetly avoid.  They differ in size, mentality, and temperament, but all of them are lethal.

 

    Everything builds to an exciting, over-the-top, ending, with a major plot twist thrown in just when I thought the story was winding up.  The final page hints that a sequel will follow, hopefully in the not-too-distant future!

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Luchador (n.) : a Mexican professional wrestler

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  5.0/5 based on 1 rating and 1 review.

    Goodreads: x.xx/5 based on 0 ratings and 0 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    Whatever was out there wasn’t trying to hide.  Heavy footfalls.  Breathing, maybe.  Slow and steady.  He didn’t feel fear, not exactly, but his muscles tensed, trained for impact.

    If it wanted to kill him, it probably could.

    He reached down, fingers brushing the handle of the knife on his belt.

    Then a snout pushed out of the brush.  A long tail wagged behind it.

    “Seriously?” Panther said, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.  (pg. 12)

 

    She laughed for real this time.  Then she stood on her toes and kissed him deeply.  When they pulled apart, T-Bone gave a jealous grunt.

    Kira reached out and scratched the giant dog’s head.  “Take care of this big dummy,” she whispered.

    “I will,” Panther replied.

    “I was talking to the dog,” she said with a crooked smile.  (pg. 125)

 

Kindle Details…

    Redneck Kaiju currently costs $2.99 at Amazon, which is a super deal for a new release.  Wil Radcliffe has another half-dozen e-books for your Kindle, from his two earlier series: Noggle Stones and The Whisper King.  They range in price from $0.99 to $4.99 apiece.

 

“Holy crap.  Chemistry is way more violent than I thought.”  (pg. 72)

    There’s a light-to-moderate amount of profanity in Redneck Kaiju.  I counted 16 instances in the first 20%, including a couple of f-bombs; which extrapolates out to about 80 in the whole book.  Not bad for a horror tale.  There was also one roll-in-the-hay.

 

    I spotted only one typo: raises/raised.  Kudos to whoever did the editing on this.

 

    That’s it for the quibbles.  Redneck Kaiju is a fast-paced, well-written tale with a bit of wit thrown in for good measure.  There were no slow spots that I recall.  Simply put, the monsters come in droves, fast and furious, and there’s just no time to slow down.

 

    9 Stars.  One last thing.  I liked the tip-of-the-hat to acclaimed Wyoming-born American artist Jackson Pollock.  I’ve been a fan of his ever since seeing his works in a gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyoming years ago.  It’s nice to see him getting a nod.

The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes - Neil Gaiman

   2018; 236 pages.  Volume 1 (out of 11) in the “Sandman – 30^th Anniversary Edition” series.  Full Title: Sandman Volume One: Preludes & Nocturnes.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Graphic Novel; Horror; Dark Fantasy.  Overall Rating: 9½*/10.

 

    Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite contemporary authors.  I first became acquainted with his work 16 years ago via his collaboration with Terry Pratchett in the fascinating novel, Good Omens.  Within a year-plus I’d also read his solo efforts, American Gods and Anansi Boys, both of which I consider to be masterpieces.

 

    I’ve read most of his solo novels since then, with only The Graveyard Book still on my TBR shelf.  But over the last 10 years he seems to have slowed down in his writing of full-length novels.

 

    Then I heard about his series called The Sandman.  “Aha!”, thought I, “Neil Gaiman has turned to putting out graphic novels!  Awesome!”

 

    Actually, the first volumes of his Sandman comics came out slightly before his first novels.

 

What’s To Like...

    According to Wikipedia, there were 75 issues in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic book series.  Preludes and Nocturnes is a 2018 re-release of the first eight comic book issues, comprised of

    1.) Sleep of the Just  (loc. 11)

    2.) Imperfect Hosts  (loc. 53)

    3.) Dream a Little Dream of Me  (loc. 77)

    4.) A Hope in Hell  (loc. 103)

    5.) Passengers  (loc. 128)

    6.) 24 Hours  (loc. 154)

    7.) Sound and Fury  (loc. 180)

    8.) The Sound of Her Wings  (loc. 205)

 

    Our protagonist goes by several names in the series, including Morpheus, the King of Dreams, Dream, and the titular Sandman.  At one point he is caught and imprisoned by a mortal who mistakenly thinks he’s captured the King of Death, which confused the daylights out of me.  The character "Death" does finally show up in the final book, and is an equally interesting character.

 

    Each of the eight books has its own storyline.  Needless to say, our hero escapes his prison early on, but is in a weakened condition and without several of his important artifacts: a pouch, a helm, and a ruby.  The overall storyline chronicles Dream’s efforts to retrieve those items.  Along the way, Neil Gaiman weaves in mythological references (such as the Hecateae), Reality “Slam Contests”, and a couple cameo appearances by other comic book stars.

 

    I read the e-book version of Preludes & Nocturnes, which is usually a clunky way to read a graphic novel.  But Kindle starts you out with a couple of tips for navigating the images on each page, and once I got the hang of things, I was amazed how smoothly things went.  Scrolling is ultra-slick, and the artwork, lettering, and storytelling are all incredible.

 

    Since this is a compilation of eight comic books, there is no discrete “ending”.  Book 8 does stop at a logical point in the saga, with a lot of the plot threads being explained and cleared up, and the stage being set for the next 67 installments in the series.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.8*/5, based on 5,823 ratings and 368 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.24*/5, based on 254,869 ratings and 8,898 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “Do you know what dreams are made of, Rosemary Kelly?”

    “Made of?  They’re just dreams.”

    “No.  They aren’t.  People think dreams aren’t real because they aren’t made of matter, of particles.  Dreams are real.  But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes.

    “The ruby seems to turn them into matter.  It forces them to translate themselves into forms we can recognize in this world.

    “It also controls dreams in their raw state.  Your dreams.  Anybody’s dreams.”  (loc. 144)

 

    “You could have called me, you know.”

    “I didn’t want to worry you.”

    “I don’t believe it.  Let me tell you something, Dream.  And I’m only going to say this once, so you’d better pay attention.

    “You are utterly the stupidest, most self-centered excuse for an anthropomorphic personification on this or any other plane!  An infantile, pathetic specimen!  Feeling all sorry for yourself because your little game is over, and you haven’t got the—the balls to go and find a new one!”  (loc. 214)

 

“Mother? They took my dreams away from me!”  (loc. 62)

    There’s nothing major to gripe about in Preludes & Nocturnes.  There is some cussing (10 instances in the first 25%), and a smidgen of sex and nudity, albeit those are done in a non-pornographic way.

 

    The Table of Contents either doesn’t work or is non-existent.  You can’t highlight text, but that’s because the whole e-book is scanned images of the pages from the comic books, and that's a small price to pay for the marvelous artwork and lettering.  And like any e-book consisting solely of images, this was a memory-hog on my Kindle.  Amazon lists it as eating up 811,037 KB of space.

 

    My biggest beef concerns the plethora of reissues of this series.  These include trade paperbacks, deluxe editions, 30^th Anniversary editions, Absolute Editions, annotated editions, and an Omnibus edition, all of which divide up those 75 issues in different proportions.  So even though my “Kindle 30^th Volume 1” was Issues 1-8, my “Full-Sized Paperback Volumes 2 and 3” are Issues 21-37 and Issues 38-56.   Do I hunt down something containing Issues 9-20 for the sake of completeness, or just shine it on and skip to the volumes/issues I already have? 

 

    These are all quibbles.  I’m not a big reader of Graphic Novels, yet Preludes & Nocturnes was a real treat for me, both from a storyline and an artistic angle.  Somehow, someway, Neil Gaiman is capable of adding a “Wow Factor” to any project he undertakes.

 

    9½ Stars.

Boy's Life - Robert McCammon

   1991 (although it was first copyrighted back in 1983); 611 pages.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Horror; Fantasy; Coming-of-Age.  Laurels: World Fantasy Award – Best Novel (winner, 1992); Bram Stoker Award – Best Novel (winner, 1991).  Overall Rating : 10*/10.

 

    Robert R. McCammon’s Boy’s Life.  Wikipedia notes: “It is considered by readers and critics as his best novel”, and I gotta say there’s sufficient evidence to support that claim.

 

    It won the Bram Stoker Award, which is given by the Horror Writers Association, for Best Novel in 1991.  And yes, there are beasts and ghosts and things that go bump in the night, and some that even go bump in the daytime, in Boy’s Life.  But this is not primarily a horror story.

 

    It won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1992.  And yes, there are some magic moments, some timely spellcasting, and some aerial acrobatics reminiscent of the movie ET.  But this is not primarily a fantasy tale.

 

    Rather, I’d call Boy’s Life a coming-of-age novel.  The main character, Cory Mackenson, is a 12-year-old boy when the book opens, and grows to be a 13-year-old adult by the book's end.  Alas, 600-page coming-of-age books often get tedious along the way.

 

    Which is why the Horror and Fantasy elements make this such a fantastic book.

 

What’s To Like...

    Boy’s Life is set in the fictional small town of Zephyr, Alabama in 1964 and chronicles the strange goings-on there through the first-person POV of our protagonist, 12-year-old Cory, who’s actually writing all this in (his) present-day 1991.  Robert McCammon divides the story into four “seasonal” parts, plus an epilogue:

    a.) The Shades of Spring  (0%-22%)

    b.) A Summer of Devils and Angels  (22%-46%)

    c.) Burning Autumn  (46%-74%)

    d.) Winter’s Cold Truth  (74%-97%)

    e.) Zephyr as It is  (97%-99%)

 

    The primary storyline concerns Cory and his dad witnessing a car plunging into nearby Saxon Lake with a dead man at the wheel.  Cory’s father, Tom, becomes haunted by the brutal image of the corpse, and we tag along with Cory as he tries to solve the macabre mystery murder, all the while experiencing the life of a "tween-ager" hanging out with his friends and enjoying the “magic” that kids can see in life even when adults cannot.

 

    I loved the “feel” of life in America during the early 1960’s.  Cory was born in 1952; I was born two years earlier.  Zephyr is a little bitty place out in the boondocks of Alabama; I spent the first ten years of my life in a zero-traffic-light podunk town in Pennsylvania that had a total population of just over 200.  So, Boy’s Life resonated strongly with me.

 

    It was fun to go sleuthing alongside Cory: we both got fooled by a red herring or two; and when clues did unfold, they were often more mystifying than enlightening and occasionally spawned secondary plotlines.  But it was just as much of a blast to relive the life of a 12-year-old again by activities such as:

    playing sandlot baseball with friends,

    dealing with eccentric family members and boring social occasions,

    meeting a beautiful girl who doesn't flick boogers at you,

    collecting Civil War bubble-gum cards (I had some of those!),

    going to the movie theater to watch The Three Stooges.

 

    The storytelling is superb, and I was in awe of Robert McCammon’s ability to seamlessly blend Fantasy, Horror, Mystery-Solving, and Coming-of-Age genres.  I liked the “worry pebbles”, agreed with Cory’s opinion about wasps, and was saddened by how the evolution of the milk-delivery system impacted his dad.  I enjoyed meeting both “The Lady” and “Lucifer” (who's a monkey, not a demon).  The story of “Carl and Rebel” left a lump in my throat and I could relate to Cory's bicycle dying.

 

    There were also some serious topics touched upon in Boy’s Life.  The preacher’s raving about a demonic Beach Boys’ song (Go ahead, guess which one.  We’ll list it in the comments.) may seem silly at first, but I’ve seen frenzied fundamentalists burning records, and listened to dire warnings of how backward-masking rock-&-roll songs can turn you into a devil-worshipper.  And though the author is born and raised in Alabama, this book makes it clear what he thinks of segregation, the KKK, and burning crosses.

 

    The ending is filled with tension and suitably exciting, even though you know Cory will survive because, well, he’s writing this book.  All the plot threads are tied up, and even the escaped freak-show beast gets its fitting reward.  I guessed the “whydunit” correctly, although I was off as on the “whodunit” angle.  I found that trying to solve the various mysteries before Cory does is an exercise in futility; but keeping your eyes peeled for clues popping up is much more productive.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.7/5 based on 1,779 ratings.

    Goodreads: 4.36/5 based on 26,619 ratings and 2,964 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    We all start out knowing magic.  We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us.  We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand.  But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls.  We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out.  We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible.  Told to act our age.  Told to grow up, for God’s sake.  (loc. 59)

 

    I left Rocket to wait there, and I walked up the hill among the moon-splashed tombstones.  (…)  The white dead people lay on one side, the black dead people on the other.  It made sense that people who could not eat in the same café, swim in the same public pool, or shop in the same stores would not be happy being dead and buried within sight of each other.  Which made me want to ask Reverend Lovoy sometime if the Lady and the Moon Man would be going to the same heaven as Davy Ray.  If black people occupied the same heaven as white people, what was the point of eating in different cafes here on earth?  (loc. 7538)

 

Kindle Details…

    At the moment, you can pick up Boy’s Life for $11.99 at Amazon, although the author periodically offers it at a generous discount.  Robert McCammon has several other e-novels available at Amazon, ranging in price from $5.99 to $15.99, plus a couple of short stories for under $2 each.

 

The need to hear stories, or live lives other than our own for even the briefest moment, is the key to the magic that was born in our bones.  (loc. 533)

    It’s difficult to find anything to nitpick about in Boy’s Life.  There’s a fair amount of cussing throughout the book, but that's to be expected for this kind of tale.  There’s a slew of characters to meet and greet.  Some of them are important, others strut briefly across the stage and then are gone, never to return.  It might’ve been nice to have a “Cast of Characters” section at the front for reference, but I keep my own notes anyway, so this didn’t hinder me.  And finally, since Robert McCammon is a recognized top-tier Horror genre author, if you’re wanting the book to scare you poopless or gross you out, you might be disappointed.

 

    But I pick at nits.  For me, Boy’s Life was a fantastic novel, covering multiple genres, without any slow spots (it was an event-filled year for Cory), and with a perfect blend of excitement, drama, eeriness, and mystery-solving.  I’ve yet to any of Robert McCammon’s "genuine" Horror tales, but a couple of them are on my bookshelf, so I have no excuse not to read one of them in the near future.

 

    10 Stars.   A friend recommended Boy’s Life to me, citing it as being Robert McCammon at his best.  I took that as a challenge since I’ve read the first couple books of his Matthew Corbett series and given them all 9*/10 ratings.  It turns out my friend was right.

Speaks The Nightbird, Volume 2: Evil Unveiled - Robert McCammon

    2003; 418 pages.  Full Title: Speaks The Nightbird, Volume 2: Evil Unveiled.  Book 2 (or Chapter 24-44 in the newer, combined version of the book), out of the 5-book “Matthew Corbett” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Horror; Mystery; Witches; Demons; Suspense; Historical Fiction.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

    Time is running out for Rachel Howarth.  She’s been tried by the magistrate, found guilty of being a witch, and will be burned at the stake five days hence.

    The magistrate’s young clerk, Matthew Corbett, believes Rachel is innocent, and is determined to prove it.  For that matter, he’s rather skeptical about the existence of witches at all.  Still, the evidence against Rachel is quite persuasive.

    For starters, both Rachel’s husband and Fount Royal’s minister have been murdered, clawed to death by an unknown beast, most likely some demon she summoned.  Then there are the various buildings in the town that have burnt to the ground, with the firefighting efforts seeming to have no effect on the infernos.  Surely this is the devil’s work.

    But the most damning evidence against Rachel are the sworn testimonies of three eyewitnesses, each of whom claims to have seen Rachel doing …um… nasty things with Satan himself.  None of the three give any indication that they’re lying, and one of them, little Violet Adams, is too young to think of such vile acts on her own.

    So Matthew has his work cut out for him, and not much time in which to do it.  And for the remaining townspeople of Fount Royal, who are watching their fledgling village turn into a ghost town due to that accursed witch, the five days until the burning at the stake can’t pass by soon enough.

What’s To Like...

    First off, let’s clarify things about this book.  It was originally written as two separate volumes, of which Speaks The Nightbird, Evil Unveiled is Volume 2.  The first volume, Speaks the Nightbird, Judgment of the Witch, is reviewed here.  The two volumes have since been combined into one book, and if you buy Speaks The Nightbird as a new book nowadays, you’ll get this combined version.  OTOH, if you pick it up in a used-book store, like I did, you could get either the combined book or one of the two individual volumes.

    The setting is the Carolina Colony in 1699, the same as in Book 1.  That one ended with lots of questions and no answers yet revealed.  The questions are:

    a.) Who is burning down the buildings in Fount Royal?

    b.) Who Is framing Rachel as a witch?

    c.) Is the Evil in Fount Royal of Natural or Supernatural origin?

    d.) Why is singing heard when Satan allegedly visits, and who’s singing?

    e.) Where did the innkeeper Shawcombe disappear to?

    f.) How did an Indian come into possession of a Spanish-minted gold coin?

       Robert McCammon wastes little time in starting to answer these in Evil Unveiled, and it’s fun for the reader to walk alongside Matthew, trying to make sense of all the weird things going on.  There are 21 chapters to cover 418 pages (chapters 24 thru 44 in the combined version), or if you’re reading it in your Kindle (I was), it starts at 55% in the combined book.  I once again was delighted  by the "Is it Natural or Supernatural?" aspect of the mystery, and I'll not give any spoilers about that here.

    I was again fascinated by the meticulous attention to historical detail.  But in addition to that, I liked the glimpse of the state of medical science back then.  The poor magistrate is at Death’s door, and the town doctor uses the latest medical practices to try to heal him.  Alas, these are things like leeches, a heat-&-vacuum blood treatment, applying a plaster, and last but definitely not least, something called a colonic.  I’ll spare you the details of this last one; let’s just say you’ll have a greater appreciation of the strides that have been made in the last 400 years in the medical field.

    I liked the inclusion of “Greek Fire”, whose composition is truly a lost secret in History.  There’s some French again, which I always appreciate, although I have to nitpick at the phrase “La Florida”.  It’s “La Floride.”  I'm presuming that Spellchecker is at fault for that typo.  Chess once again makes an appearance, and this time with an opening move (with a pawn), which is more in line with opening theory, such as it was in 1699.

    There’s a fair amount of cussing, which fits in appropriately with the frontier setting, one roll in the hay, and one instance of brutal torture.  Evil Unveiled, aka “Part 2”, is not a standalone novel, but most likely you’ll be reading the combined version, which is a complete and self-contained tale.

Kewlest New Word...

Grisard (n.) : a grayish-black color (French).

Others : Vulpine (adj.); Luffing (v.); .); Cattawago (n., and a word not found anywhere else on the Internet except this book).

Excerpts...

    “What can you tell us of the witch?  Does she weep and wail at the prospect of burning?”

    The stew he was about to swallow had suddenly sprouted thorns and lodged in his throat.  “Mrs. Vaughan,” he said, as politely as possible, “if you don’t mind … I would prefer not to talk about Rachel Howarth.”

    Suddenly Cherise looked at him and grinned, her blue eyes gleaming.  “Oh, that is a subject I find of interest!”  Her voice was pleasingly melodic, but there was a wickedly sharp edge to it as well.  “Do tell us about the witch, sir!  Is it true she shits toad-frogs?”  (loc. 8834)

    “Everyone goes on,” he repeated, with a taint of bitter mockery.  “Oh, yes.  They go on.  With crippled spirits and broken ideals, they do go on.  And with the passage of years they forget what crippled and broke them.  They accept it grandly as they grow older, as if crippling and breaking were gifts from a king.  Then those same hopeful spirits and large ideals in younger souls are viewed as stupid, and petty … and things to be crippled and broken, because everyone does go on.”  (loc. 10471)

Kindle Details...

    The e-book version of Speaks The Nightbird (the combined version) is presently on sale at Amazon, for a mere $1.99.  The other books in the Matthew Corbett series go for $6.99, except for Book 2, The Queen of Bedlam, which sells for a whopping $13.99.  Robert McCammon has other books in the Horror genre as well; these e-books are all in the price range of $1.99-$10.99.  If you have patience, the author graciously and periodically puts a lot of these e-books on sale for $1.99, except for the other books in this series.  I should know, I’ve been keeping an eye out for those.

If this was indeed Hell, (…) no wonder everyone was in such a fever to make their reservations.  (loc. 11357)

   The quibbles are minor and mostly technical in nature.  It took me a couple chapters to remember which characters had done what in the first volume.  But their various roles came back to me quickly, and hey, if I’d  read the combined version, or hadn't waited two months to read Volume 2, this wouldn’t’ve been an issue.

    The page-numbering system doesn't work in the second half of the “combined” Kindle version.  Book 1 is okay, but Book 2 starts out at page 484, and never moves from there.  Yeah, I know.  Picky, picky.

    In a similar vein, the number of pages listed for each version seem contradictory.  The paperback format says it has 816 pages, which makes sense: a pair of 400+ page books combined.  But Amazon says the Kindle version only has 500 pages, while the “Mass Market” paperback has 482 pages.  Amazon doesn’t tell you how many pages are in the Hardcover version, but Barnes & Noble says there are 726 pages in it.  That’s quite a variance if you're trying to make sure you're getting the combined story.

    None of this has anything to do Robert MaCammon’s fine storytelling and writing skills.  The only nit I can pick in that regard is that it seemed like the thread involving the innkeeper, Shawcombe, didn't seem to contribute anything to the storyline, and its resolution seemed to occur a tad bit too conveniently.  But hey, Tolkien had his equally irrelevant Tom Bombadil tangent, and nobody, including me, gripes about that.

    9 Stars.  Same as for Book 1, Judgment of the Witch.   For me, this was a great introduction to Robert McCammon’s novels.  I have a couple more on my Kindle, and also one on my TBR shelf.  And here’s hoping the author will someday break from his current pattern, and occasionally discount the other books in the Matthew Corbett series.

Speaks The Nightbird, Volume 1: Judgment of the Witch - Robert McCammon

    2002; 483 pages.  Full Title: Speaks The Nightbird, Volume 1: Judgment Of The Witch.  Book 1 (or ½), of the 6-book “Matthew Corbett” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genre : Horror; Mystery; Witches; Suspense; Historical Fiction.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

    The Carolina town of Fount Royal is dying, and everyone who still remains there knows why.

    Yes, people are succumbing left and right to the swamp plague.  So are the animals.  To say nothing of those two murders.  Plus the miserable jungle-like weather that seems to keep the sun from shining, which is ruining the crops.  But all of those things are effects, not causes.

    The cause is “her”.  The witch.  And the sooner she is hanged or burned at the stake – it doesn’t really matter which method is used now, does it? – the sooner the curse that is afflicting Fount Royal will end.

    But the town’s residents are civilized, law-abiding people.  The witch is in jail, and she's entitled to a fair and speedy trial.  It should only take a day at the most, after which she’ll be found guilty and sentenced to death.  So somebody get busy making the stake, chopping the wood, and lighting torches, cuz there’s gonna be a public burning real soon.  All that’s lacking is a judge.

    And he’s on his way from Charles Town.  He should be here any day now.

What’s To Like...

    Speaks The Nightbird – Volume 1: Judgment Of The Witch takes place in 1699, a few years after the onset of the Salem Witch Trials in New England.  The fictional (ANAICT) Fount Royal is a day or two's ride outside of the larger city of Charles Town, now modern-day Charleston, South Carolina. Back in those days there was no “North” or “South” Carolina, it was just the single colony.

    Robert McCammon is first and foremost a writer of the horror genre, but to be honest, I was more transfixed by the historical fiction aspect of Speaks The Nightbird.  When’s the last time you read a book that was set anywhere in American in 1699?  The attention to historical detail here is amazing, with now-archaic things like “toss ‘em boys” (a food), “black flaggers” (pirates), slide groat and wicket (boys’ games in those days), and the Spanish method of rolling tobacco leaves into cigars.

    The horror/mystery/thriller aspect of the book is just as good.  The fundamental question is whether the odd goings-on in Fount Royal are natural or supernatural in origin.  I very much enjoy books that keep you guessing about this.  Preston & Child employ the same motif in their Agent Pendergast series, and I’m a fan of them, too.

    I was impressed by the character development.  Our protagonist, Matthew Corbett, a young clerk and the assistant to the magistrate, is a fascinating study.  But the other major characters – the witch, the magistrate, Fount Royal’s founder, et al. – are also interesting people to meet and get to know.  As for the baddies, well, I can’t tell you anything about them because, other than Exodus Jerusalem (who may be more of a shyster than a baddie), they haven’t been identified yet.  More on this in a bit.

    The detailed descriptions conveyed to me a real “feel” for life in America in 1699.  I still haven’t figured out who-or-what “Jack One-Eye” is, but the “toss ‘em boys” food was explained on page 83, ditto for the enigmatic title on page 459.  I chuckled at the medicinal smoking of hemp on page 265; it is a rare treat to encounter some subtle humor in a horror story.  I also liked the chess game on page 193.  My only quibble is the assertion that Matthew’s first move was with one of his knights.  While not impossible, it would be rare for either player making their first move with anything but a pawn in 1699.  Still, Matthew says he was self-taught, so perhaps that explains his odd choice.

    The trial (technically. a hearing) begins on page 219.  The testimony against the accused witch is compelling; even Matthew is forced to admit that.  There is a lot of cussing and explicit sex, so you probably don't want little Tommy or Suzy reading this book.  None of the threads are tied up, but the book ends at a suitably-chosen spot.

Kewlest New Word...

Toss ‘em Boys (n.; phrase) : greasy roast chicken, so named because of the manner in which the fowl is caught.  Google it..

Others : Caliginous (adj.); Sippet (n.).

Excerpts...

    “Alice Barrow has taken to bed as well.”

    “Alice Barrow?”  Bidwell turned from the window to face the other man.  “Is she ailing?”

    “I had cause to visit John Swaine this morning,” Winston said.  “According to Cass Swaine, Alice Barrow has told several persons that she’s been suffering dreams of the Dark Man.  The dreams have so terrified her that she will not leave her bed.”

    Bidwell gave an exasperated snort.  “And so she’s spreading them like rancid butter on scones, is that it?”

    “It seems to be.”  (pg. 57)

    “How old are you?”

    “Twenty years.”

    “Have you always been so curious?”

    “Yes,” he answered.  “Always.”

    “From what I saw today, the magistrate doesn’t appreciate your curiosity.”

    Matthew said, “He appreciates the truth.  Sometimes we arrive at it from different routes.”  (pg. 281)

“Better the company of wolves than the cryin’ of saints.”  (pg. 29)

   Speaks The Nightbird, Volume 1 is not a standalone story, despite being 28 chapters and 483 pages long.  Normally I’d carp about that, but in researching this book, I discovered that if you pick this up new nowadays, you’ll find it to be 800+ pages in length, and is actually Volumes 1 and 2 combined.  That includes the e-book version.

   So it appears I have a very early edition of the book (the publisher is Pocket Books).  Indeed, the blurb in the back exhorts the reader to be sure not to miss Speaks The Nightbird, Volume 2: Evil Unveiled, which is/was "coming out next month”.

   

    Which means the only thing I have left to quibble about is the Wikipedia entry for Robert McCammon.  It really needs to be updated and fleshed out a bit.  The author has issued at least one more book since the Wikipedia article was last updated.

    9 Stars.  Frankly, if the only thing I can gripe about is the author’s Wikipedia page, you just know I thoroughly enjoyed the book.  Highly recommended, and that's from someone who doesn’t read much in the horror genre.  My OCD will demand that I read “Volume 2” at some point in the near future.

The Damnation Game - Clive Barker

    1985; 433 pages.  New Author? : Nope, but this is only my second book by him.  Genre : Horror; Suspense.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

    Marty Strauss is getting out of prison early!  Well yes, it is a conditional parole, and he’ll be confined to the grounds of Joseph Whitehead’s sprawling estate.  But it's better than sharing a cell at te penitentiary, and he’ll even get paid for his new job: he'll be the personal bodyguard of Mr. Whitehead himself.

    The work itself looks easy enough.  There’s a wall around the perimeter of the estate, and barbed wire atop of that.  There’s a pack of Alsatian guard dogs trained to tear into any intruder.  There are several others on the staff who will keep an eye out for strangers as well.  And there are cameras monitoring the entire house and grounds.  The Devil himself couldn’t get into Joseph Whitehead’s mansion without being detected and intercepted.

     But you’d better be careful, Marty.  Old Man Whitehead may be crazy, but there’s a reason for his paranoia.  And if the Devil does come calling, you’re expected to sacrifice your life for the sake of your employer.

What’s To Like...

    The Damnation Game was Clive Barker’s debut full-length novel, but he had already established himself as a promising author of Horror tales via his set of six short stories, Books of Blood.  The settings in TDG are sparse, and the first, World War 2 Warsaw, is almost entirely confined to the Prologue.  The rest of the book takes place at various spots in the greater London area.

    There’s about a hundred pages of world-building to plod through at the beginning, but this was also true of the other Clive Barker book I read, which is reviewed here.  Structurally, the book is perfect, evolving steadily from a relatively peaceful, if somewhat dysfunctional, start to abject terror, as Joseph Whitehead’s adversary lays siege to Marty and company and everyone else at the mansion.  The tension builds throughout the story to an exciting showdown at the end.  Clive Barker knows how to write a horror story.

    I liked the UE (Ultimate Evil), he is incredibly powerful, and yet is neither omnipotent nor omniscient.  His henchman are also suitably scary, and, in the case of his two missionaries, also a bit funny.  The backstory for the UE also gets recounted, which I appreciated.  He is a resourceful chap (aren’t all well-crafted UE’s?), and his way of “scouting” Whitehead’s mansion was quite innovative.

    The Damnation Game is written in “English”, as opposed to “American”, but it’s hardly noticeable.  R-rated stuff abounds, but hey, wouldn't “cozy horror story” be an oxymoron?  This is a standalone novel, and ANAICT, there is no sequel, although I am certainly not an expert on Clive Barker’s bibliography.  Finally, the last chapter is a way-kewl epilogue that wraps things up nicely.

Kewlest New Word...

Doggo (adv.) : remaining motionless and quiet to escape detection.

Others : Welter (n.); Baize (n.); Farrago (n.); Unblenched (adj.); Peristalsis (n.).

Excerpts...

    She picked up the receiver and dialed nineteen, the number of Marty’s bedroom.  It rang once, then again.  She willed him to wake quickly.  Her reserves of control were, she knew, strictly limited.

    “Come on, come on . . . “ she breathed.

    Then there was a sound behind her; heavy feet crunched the glass into smaller pieces.  She turned to see who it was, and there was a nightmare standing in the doorway with a knife in his hand and a dogskin over one shoulder.  The phone slipped form her fingers, and the part of her that had advised panic all along took the reins.

    Told you so, it shouted.  Told you so!  (pg. 185)

    The Deluge descended in the driest July in living memory; but then no revisionist’s dream of Armageddon is complete without its paradox.  Lightning appeared out of a clear sky; flesh turned to salt; the meek inheriting the earth: all unlikely phenomena.

    That July, however, there were no spectacular transformations.  No celestial lights appeared in the clouds.  No rains of salamanders or children.  If angels came and went that month – if the looked-for Deluge broke – then it was, like the truest Armageddon, metaphor.  (pg. 277)

“You call me ridiculous.  You.  A talking fog.”  (pg. 314)

    The Damnation Game came highly recommended to me by a friend who considers it Clive Barker’s finest effort, and it did not disappoint.  It didn’t leave me cringing in fear, the way some J.A. Konrath’s books do (such as the one reviewed here), but I did keep worrying the whole way through about how Marty could possibly defeat such as powerful UE.

    The quibbles are minor, and by and large mirrors those I had with the other Clive Barker book I’ve read.  The plot is interesting, but not particularly twisty.  The character development is superb, but it felt like everyone got their predictably just desserts.  The storytelling is great, yet this is by no mean a quick read.

    But I pick at nits.  I enjoyed The Damnation Game, and that says something about the author’s writing skills, since I am not a big fan of the Horror genre.  I have one more Clive Barker book on my ever-expanding TBR shelf, Abarat, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I read it later this year.

    8½ Stars.  Add ½ star if you’re a fan of Dean Koontz.  I found the tone of The Damnation Game to be quite similar to his.

The Ocean At The End Of The Lane - Neil Gaiman

    2013; 259 pages.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Dark Fantasy; Horror.  Laurels : NY Times #1 Bestseller; 2013 National Book Award “Book of the Year”; nominated for the 2013 Nebula Award – Best Novel; 2014 Loew Award “Best Fantasy Novel”; nominated for the 2014 World Fantasy Award “Best Novel”.  Overall Rating : 10*/10.

    The funeral was a godsend in a way.  It gave him an opportunity to visit the area where he grew up.  He saw his old house where he lived as a child.  Well not the same actual house; that one had been torn down and another built in its place.  And it made him think of  his parents and his sister, even though that was 40 years ago.

    Yet what he felt really drawn to was the neighbors’ farm a mile or so farther down the lane.  The old Hempstock place, with the duck pond at the back of their property.  There was Old Mrs. Hempstock, and her daughter (he presumed), Ginnie Hempstock.  And her daughter, also presumably, young Lettie.

    He dimly recalled meeting Lettie when she was eleven and he was seven.  How many years had it been since she moved to Australia?  Wispy memories swirled evasively inside his head as he tried to think back to when he was with Lettie.  They had some strange adventure, although the details eluded him now.  But he did recollect she said the duck pond was actually an ocean, and that the Hempstocks had come from the other side.

    Ah yes, the ocean.  The ocean at the end of the lane.

What’s To Like...

    The Ocean At The End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman’s 2013 highly-acclaimed novel, which won or was nominated for all sorts of awards, most of which are listed above.  It is a clever mixing of both horror and fantasy, and balances somber topics like loneliness and dread with things like trust and hope.  There’s some magic, some monsters, and some mayhem.  But the supernatural takes a backseat to a compelling storyline about two kids developing a deep and trusting friendship.

    The book is written in the First Person POV.  The protagonist, who is also the narrator, is never given a name, although we can deduce he is a boy.  This sounds awkward, but Gaiman makes it work smoothly.

    There are only a few characters – the three Hempstock women, the narrator’s family, a nanny, and an opal miner.  So if you’re tired of novels where there are dozens of characters to keep straight, this book’s for you.  I think this is also the first book I’ve read that contained both a prologue and an introduction.

    The setting is modest – just the two family farms and the fields and country lane between them.  But Neil Gaiman fills this with all sorts of neat things – a cute kitten, a foot worm,  a “Flowers for Algernon” moment, an adorable kitten, and wormholes that don’t look anything like those described in Quantum Physics.

    This is a standalone book, suitable for the kiddies if they don’t mind being scared out of their wits.  There are multiple and successive Ultimate Evils (UE’s), which I think is very rare.  This is the second book this year that I’ve encountered it (the other one is reviewed here), and it works marvelously here.

Kindle Details...

    The Ocean At The End Of The Lane sells for $10.99 at Amazon, which seems in line for a top-tier author.   Neil Gaiman has, of course, a slew of books available for the Kindle, ranging in price from $4.99 to $14.47.

Excerpts...

    I walked, gingerly, across the small yard to the front door.  I looked for a doorbell, in vain, and then I knocked. The door had not been latched properly, and it swung gently open as I rapped it with my knuckles.

    I had been here, hadn’t I, a long tme ago?  I was sure I had.  Childhood memories are sometimes covered and obscured the things that come later, like childhood toys forgotten at the bottom of a crammed adult closet, but they are never lost for good.  I stood in the hallway and called, “Hello?  Is there anybody here?”  (loc. 82)

    The second thing I thought was that I knew everything.  Lettie Hempstock’s ocean flowed inside me, and it filled the entire universe, from Egg to Rose.  I knew that.  I knew what Egg was – where the universe began, to the sound of uncreated voices singing in the void – and I knew where Rose was – the peculiar crinkling of space on space into dimensions that fold like origami and blossom like strange orchids, and which would mark the last good time before the eventual end of everything and the next Big Bang, which would be, I knew now, nothing of the kind.  (loc. 1932)

 “You don’t pass or fail at being a person, dear.”  (loc. 2346)

    Simply put – The Ocean At The End of the Lane is a masterpiece, fully deserving of a 10-star rating.  I kept turning the pages, wanting to see how Lettie and the narrator were going to get out of a rather in-over-their-heads situation.

    The writing is masterful, and so is the storytelling.  Just about the time you begin to tire of the first UE, Gaiman switches in something new and more horrifying.  Then he closes everything up with an ending that will leave you both sweating with relief and with a lump in your throat.

    If I were forced to say something negative to balance all this gushiness, the only thing I can think of is that the book’s too short.  I wasn’t ready for it to end.

    10 Stars.  Overwhelmingly recommended.  There’s a reason this was a New York Times #1 bestseller, and it’s not just because of the Neil Gaiman name on it.